“A severely autistic epileptic teenager who was pulled out of a swimming pool and restrained after he jumped in fully clothed during a school trip has won £28,250 damages from the Metropolitan police.”

“It’s always, and only, simple propositions that matter. But often, in the law, only big judges have the confidence to utter simple things. That was what happened in Helmot v Simon [2012] UKPC 5 (7 March 2012), an appeal to the Privy Council by an optimistic defendant who sought to overturn a decision of the Court of Appeal of Guernsey, (whose judgment had been delivered by a judge by the name of Sumption).”

“Anger over votes for prisoners and the release of Abu Qatada shows just what a toxic issue human rights law has become. In this provocative film, Andrew Neil travels to Europe and across Britain to find out why Britain follows these laws and asks can anything be done to restore our faith in them?”

“An interest carved out of a superior leasehold or freehold interest could constitute ‘an interest reversionary (whether directly or indirectly)’ on the term of a lease for the purpose of section 9(1) of the Perpetuities and Accumulations Act 1964. Accordingly, an option for a lease extension fell within section 9(1) and so was exempt from the rule against perpetuities.”

“The tax status of preference dividends from a Cayman Islands company to whose shares the taxpayer had subscribed, was determined by the machinery by which they were distributed. Under Cayman law share premium was distributable as dividend, whereas in English tax law share premium was treated in the same way as paid-up share capital. The transaction was not a sale and repurchase of securities such as to constitute a ‘buying back’ within the meaning of sections 737A and 730B of the Income and Corporation Taxes Act 1988.”

“Options for regulators to consider when deciding how best to prevent risks to, and improve, the quality of legal services consumers receive are outlined today [13 March] by the Legal Services Board (LSB).”

“A major step will be taken in the delivery of the research-based segment of the Legal Education & Training Review (LETR) now that the a key discussion paper and headline findings from the draft Literature Review have been revealed.”

“‘Will both teacher and pupils simply become the next victims of the tyranny of tolerance, heretics, whose dissent from state-imposed orthodoxy must be crushed at all costs?’, asked Cardinal O’Brien in his controversial Telegraph article on gay-marriage. He was suggesting that changing the law to allow gay marriage would affect education as it would preclude a teacher from telling pupils that marriage can only mean a heterosexual union. He later insinuated that the change might lead to students being given material such as an ‘explicit manual of homosexual advocacy entitled The Little Black Book: Queer in the 21st Century.'”

“The Court of Appeal has ruled that there is no ‘near miss’ principle in the application of the Immigration Rules. People who miss the five years’ continuous residence requirement – even if by two weeks – will not have met the rules. There is no exception.”

“A senior salesman at Credit Suisse has been fined £210,000 by the Financial Services Authority for playing a guessing game with clients to enable them to identify private information about a forthcoming bond issue.”

“Proposals to charge claimants for taking their cases to the European court of human rights (ECHR) have triggered an international row over the United Kingdom’s programme for reforming the Strasbourg court.”